Get your camera’s out stylists - and be sure to submit your latest and greatest ‘do’s to the new Donna Bella Milan hair extensions contest! Send your final hair extension pictures in to Info@donnabellahair.com and we’ll put you in the running for a free set of extensions, from Donna Bella Milan!

Be sure to spread the news around, and don’t be shy - send us your best mug!

Some habits are hard to break. We’ve posted here many times stating the importance of giving your scalp a break between visits to the extension salon - but we never thought we’d see such silly antics over $40 worth of hair extensions from a local beauty supply store.

According to the Dallas News, three unidentified woman entered Wigs and Beauty Supply in the 5700 block of Lovell Avenue on Monday afternoon, September 22nd. One woman headed to the back of the store and another woman, according to the assulted store owner, seemed to function as a sort of lookout at the front. A third woman walked along the wig aisles.

The 47-year-old store owner watched the third woman take items off the shelf and put them in a tan bag, police said. When the owner confronted the woman, she opened her bag to reveal hair extensions and a wig worth about $40.

When he told her to put the items back, she grabbed him by the throat and pushed him against a wall. She reached into her waistband as if she had a weapon, police said.

One of the other women yelled, “Mom, let’s go!”

Wow. I’d thought I’d heard it all - but it looks like the cops will be dealing with a new set of addicts who’ll do anything for $40 worth of hair extensions.

Dear Donna Bella Customers,

Effective today 22″ Straight and 22″ Body Wave hair extensions are now on sale!  We’ve slashed the prices by 15% so you only pay $38.25 per pack!  Donna Bella 22″ hair extensions are 100% pure human REMY hair.  This is a limited time offer and is available through the 15th of September.

Buy online today at www.DonnaBellaHair.com.

Miley Cyrus is Hannah Montana!
AND… this teen star fancies extended hair!

If you have kids or are a teen yourself, my secrets are old news. However… days ago this revelation came to me as a twenty-something-year-old lacking Nickelodeon/ the Disney Channel.  Yup a light-bulb went on and finally I sleep at night.

Recently the fifteen year old millionaire, Miley Cyrus, hosted the 2008 Teen Choice Awards on August 4th. The maybe-pre-permit-driver’s-licensed teen was photographed by paparazzi leaving Juan Juan Salon with a longer look July 27th, 2008.  Woohoo! … for Juan Juan Salon! … and Yeah! … for stylists with clientele who actually put on “Sweet Sixteen’s” for their spoiled children.  What about the average parents who want their offspring to understand the ethics/value of hard work and money?  This conversation will only end in door slammings and silent treatments across the country.  To them I am so sorry, teen-parent relationships are tricky enough.

So what is too young?  Currently there are no age laws or limits for customers sitting chair side.  Personally, I’d rather have the $1,500 nesting in a college fund than being flipped over a high school freshman’s shoulder (or get some real hair clip ins for a special event like Prom or Homecoming…duh).  Again on the optimistic side for cosmetologists everywhere; clients are showing up younger and younger.  I mean really… you can’t say no to a stage mom or the mother who wants to be a child’s BFF.  For parents out there needing backup to their “no way” argument; if the hamster’s still alive in 3 years of course you can care for your own hair extensions.  This is something for salons and hair suppliers to prepare for and look forward to.

Never thought I’d see this, but I suppose I’m not surprised! A new Japanese Sci-fi movie has hair extensions at the center of its twisted plot. Story follows two sets of characters who each have contact with the hair - one who knows where it comes from, and the other ignorant of its source.

Here’s the synopsis:

HAIR EXTENSIONS (Ekusute a.k.a. EXTE: HAIR EXTENSIONS, 2007)
35mm/108 min./Color/1:85.1 Flat/Japanese language, English subtitles/Unrated
Japanese customs agents discover a huge amount of human hair along with the bald corpse of a young girl. The dead girl’s hair begins to grow, which arouses the curiosity of Yamazaki (Ren Osugi of AUDITION, CURE, and ZEBRAMAN), a mortuary employee with a hair fetish. Now a mad hair-peddler with an endless stock of locks, Yamazaki hocks his wares to salons to be used for hair extensions.

Meanwhile, Yuko (Chiaki Kuriyama of KILL BILL Vol. 1 and BATTLE ROYALE), an up-and-coming hair stylist at the Gilles De Rais hair salon, is entrusted with the care of her timid and frightened niece Mami (Miku Sato) whose body bares the signs of abuse. It’s not long before death surrounds them and their extension-wearing clientele. The hair seems to have a life of its own, along with lethal and vengeful intentions. Now Yuko and Mami must untangle the mystery before more deaths occur. Directed by Sion Sono (SUICIDE CLUB), HAIR EXTENSIONS will make your hair stand on end!

EXTE: Hair Extensions will be showing at select theaters in cool cities crazy enough to showcase such a nutty flick! Check out the film’s website (in Japanese) here: http://www.exte-movie.jp/

Celebrities; Sienna Miller, Kate Hudson, and Mary-Kate Olsen effortlessly pull off the hippie-chic look.

Bohemian chic is the perfect summer style for longer hair.  Let your hair follow the nonconforming fashion trends this season by going Boho.

To create a natural look of your own, hair needs to be clean, slightly damp, and un-brushed.  The best time to create this style is after washing so that your hair dries and sits naturally.  Flip your hair upside down and apply a styling product like volumizing mousse from scalp to ends.  Flip your hair back again and let it fall/part naturally as you gently scrunch and lift around the crown of the head and the tips.

Bohemians are usually creative and artsy; so finish the look with your own flare by adding random braids, twists, or vintage accessories. Don’t forget Boho style is all about nature, ease and noncomformity.

It doesn’t have to be perfect and it should be fun!

Telling that special someone, it’s not all yours.

Don’t laugh.  Whether your extensions create more volume or give you that extra length; there comes a point in every relationship where you might need to have “the talk.”

When? For new wearers this is a frequently asked question. Within days of getting the extended locks they naturally feel like your own.  You are comfortable and confident leaving those around you, including your partner, clueless to the makeup of your gorgeous “do”.  However, one day, maybe soon, in a moment of spontaneous intimacy… hands will run through your gorgeous head of hair to perhaps notice the tiny bead-bonds holding it securely to your own.

This might feel strange and unexpected to the inexperienced.  So pre-mentioning the additional hair and giving your significant other a heads up is recommended.  You’ll realize this conversation can turn into a learning opportunity, your now educated partner appreciates and understands your beauty secret.

With hair extensions becoming more common, affordable, and accepted, perhaps one day this kind of “pillow talk” will be unnecessary and nonexistent for those of us with lucious locks.

Another common concern we receive from new stylists making the switch from other hair extension companies to Donna Bella is, “when I buy hair from other companies, the extensions are so smooth and silky when pulled out of the package, but then after a few washes, the hair becomes a dry, tangled mess.”

Here’s why that happens: A little manufacturing trick that has become very popular within the last 5 years is what we call “coating” or “dipping”. After the human hair has been hackled and sorted, it then moves onto the coloring process. After the hair has dried, some companies will “dip” their hair in a silicone solution. What this does is put a slippery, shiny protective layer on the outside of each hair strand, making it look and feel very high quality.

Unfortunately, this silicone solution doesn’t last very long. What happens is the client goes home extremely happy with a new beautiful look. After a few days of wear and a couple of washes, that silicone comes right off, conveying the true quality of hair.

This “dipping” process is very common for manufacturers and hair extension companies to use especially with non-remy human hair. Non-remy human hair is a much lesser quality human hair because of the way it was collected. Non-remy human hair is collected from the floors of salons and homes after it was cut from the person’s head.

The problem with this is that once that hair hits the floors, it’s impossible to tell which direction the cuticle is facing. In other words, which end is the root or top and which end is the tail or bottom? The collector carelessly puts it all into a bag which is taken to market for resale. Why is the cuticle so important? I’ll tackle that topic in another blog entry.

Let’s get back to my original point, the reason why hair may have been beautiful right out of the package, but quickly becomes a dry tangled mess. Remember a lot of the new hair extension companies popping up don’t even know why this is happening to the hair they sell.

The reason is, they have no participation in the manufacturing process. They just get online, locate a “hair manufacturer” and start buying. As we say at Donna Bella, the test of time is our best friend. This is how you, the stylist, can determine the difference between Donna Bella and our competition.

“Why are black hairs mixed in with my blonde extensions?” This is one of the common complaints we hear from stylists that use other hair extension companies. Here’s the answer: Although it happens to all types of hair, the black hair problem is most prevalent with Indian hair. The reason is because within the last few years, Indian women have started using a product on their hair that has substantial amounts of coconut oils.

Over the years, while growing their hair to 18,” and sometimes much longer, the coconut oils have a lasting effect on the hair. It would only be considered a negative effect to manufacturers like ourselves, because it makes the coloring process much more tedious and difficult.

The coconut oil creates a seal or repellent inside the cuticle, not allowing the hair shaft to take new color deposits. Another reason for black hair in your extensions is the black hair strands are synthetic. You might ask how those synthetic strands made their way into your 100% human hair package. I’ll answer that question in another blog.

Even if that black hair does not burn or shrivel up when using a flat iron or curling iron, does not mean it is human hair. There are now new synthetic fibers on the market that are heat resistant. Also a topic worthy of it’s own blog. Another reason for black hair mixed in with your blonde extensions is the hair donor had damaged or old hair.

Damaged from previous hair color. Woman coloring their own hair before selling/donating it, is much more common in China than it is in India. Bleaching hair in China has become very trendy. It used to be only in the larger coastal cities that women would bleach their hair. But because of T.V. and media, even in the rural western cities, which is where most raw hair comes from, women are bleaching their hair. As we all know, bleach damages the hair and makes it more difficult for us to further lift and deposit colors.

Why do Donna Bella hair extensions not have this black hair mixed with the other colors? Donna Bella has always prided itself on the fact that we buy and process our own hair. Besides Great Lengths, Socap, Hair Dreams etc., most hair extension companies buy their hair already packaged. They have no idea where the hair came from or how it was processed. The manufacturers may tell them it is Indian or European hair, but they have no idea because they don’t spend time in India and China quality controlling their products. Donna Bella Inc. does. If any of that poor quality or synthetic hair makes it into our raw hair, it is always sorted and taken out before it goes into the final package.

A very long explanation, but now you know why some hair extension companies have black hair mixed in with their other colors - and knowing is half the battle.